Within the framework of the “Arab Guarantee” network, a chain of guarantee companies and Schemes in the MENA region, and in cooperation with the Euro-Mediterranean Guarantee Network (EMGN), The SOTUGAR is organizing on October 24 and 25, 2023 the 7th International Conference of Guarantee Companies and Schemes in the MENA Region. This conference, which is to be held at a luxury hotel situated in Tunis’s Les Berges du Lac district, follows a series of similar events held periodically in Arab capitals.

This Conference, which coincides with the 20th anniversary of the creation of SOTUGAR, will be opened by the official authorities, in the presence of the Governor of the Central Bank of Tunisia (BCT) and the conference’s guests. It will bring together over two hundred participants representing key players in the market place for SME financing, including the guarantee industry, as well as representatives of international organizations.

 The conference will provide an opportunity for interactive debates on topical themes in connection with the evolution of the guarantee of financing to SMEs and the challenges facing stakeholders now and in the future. The event will also promote sharing of knowledge and expertise between the different players and expand collaborative relationships and partnerships.

The network of guarantee institutions in the MENA region includes companies and schemes operating in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Yemen. Several regional gatherings of guarantee institutions in the MENA Region have been organized starting in autumn 2014 in Amman, Jordan, the most recent of which took place in Doha, Qatar, in 2022.

The conference will be followed on October 26 and 27, 2023 by the EMGN Autumn Academy 2023, an event promoted by the German Cooperation Agency “GIZ” with the support of SOTUGAR and which serves as a training hub bringing together executives and senior managers from EMGN institutions, as was the case for the 2022 Academy.